Tip, You're It
by Be3
Summary: A Navigator, a Helmsman and a Chief Engineer walk into a recreation room... Vague spoilers to 'Into the Darkness'.


Standard disclaimer applies.

* * *

'Beautiful,' says Hikaru, whistling through his teeth in a distracted manner. It's his turn to fry.

'Yeah. A right piece of work, if I say so myself,' adds Scotty. 'See those fragments? They can explode still, if you step on them.'

'What is it?' Pavel asks, trying to make sense of the layout. The warp core... just doesn't exist! They are asymptotically edging towards the threshold where _inactivate this, ship lives_ turns into _evacuate crewmembers before they become a biological hazard themselves_ (like the Captain did the other day, but nobody talks about it out loud).

And that wouldn't be the worst case scenario. In the worst one, there is no time to do anything.

'An old Romulan hand grenade, sort of.'

'Wow.'

'Okay, I'm going in,' Hikaru says, hands fluttering about himself. It's easy to read his mind right now - he's checking his life support. Hikaru steps through the imaginary door.

He has to last long enough to make sure the pollution is containable and the ship is not going to blow up in the next hour. It's a stretch as it is. The next man will do a fraction more, and the fifth man after that will come out on his own two feet.

Should come out on his own two feet.

All before him would be hauled away by their successors. (If they have that extra moment to spare. If not, then they would stay inside until the end. What would this be like, working beside a dying friend, whom you only need a few seconds to save?)

If - and only if - the first one buys them time. His chances to live...

'Three, two, one - stop,' whispers Scotty. 'Game's up.'

...even with the new technologies...

The hologram fades.

Hikaru stands in the middle of the deck, clutching at empty air where his tools were a second before, his face an ancient mask of despair and hatred. They run to him - they always run to each other here - and he shudders, just once.

'We'll need to practice decontamination separately,' he says almost steadily.

'Yeah,' says Scotty. 'That's what I thought.'

Pavel breathes in and out. He's next.

This is a simulation. This isn't real. The Captain has lived through it. Well, strictly speaking...

...he didn't.

...and this is worse - they _specifically programmed _it to be worse. (And between Jimmy Kirk and his old pal Spock, they made it as no-win as humanly possible.)

'McCoy will never give his consent,' Hikaru says, with a sideways glance. Without the CMO's signature, no ship-wide training protocol can be approved. 'You're green.'

'Captain will override him,' Pavel says. 'We're officers.'

Scotty takes pity on them and hands out hot chocolate. Tonight, he's maintenance. Tomorrow, he will be _the_ _first man_.

'Mr. Spock figures we've about out of the lag phase,' he says. 'We'll soon get better.'

'Yeah. We've only been dead what, a hundred times over?'

'You aren't fully trained. You just follow instructions...'

'That's the point,' mutters Hikaru.

And it is.

Because no matter what civilians think, on a Starship, each single life is always worth less than all the other lives taken together. The good of the many against the good of the one.

When Jim Kirk sacrificed himself in order to save Enterprise, Pavel thought - a lot of things - and one of them was _whew, only one victim_. He felt bad about it, sure - the Captain was his friend, too - but compared to historical precedents? This one was a no-brainer.

It was the right thing to do.

And having thought it, he logically sentenced himself to being ready to do it.

He went to Hikaru, because Hikaru knew the costs. (There was that leak in Japan in 2011, and they were still tracing it through the oceans.) He went to Scotty, because Scotty knew Enterprise. He went to Mr. Spock, because Spock was the coolest observer in the 'Fleet - he'd stop them if he thought they weren't playing safe.

The Captain, of course, sought him out himself. That was the most terrifying conversation Pavel ever had.

'Let's call it a night,' says Scotty. 'I might have a date.'

'You're not sure?'

'No. It's a Schrodinger kind of date.'

'Scotty, you already are in a box with a radioactive source,' says Hikaru with his usual lightness. 'Have you just served us poison?'

'Hey!'

'I'm ready,' says Pavel, hands fluttering in a distracted manner.


End file.
